The Legal Underground

The Fulfillment of a Dream: I'm Mentioned in a Legal Disclaimer

Though I once mocked the disclaimers that appear on legal websites, I'm mocking no more. I now recommend that everyone add a disclaimer to their weblogs. But not just any disclaimer: I recommend the one that appears on lawyer Timothy Hadley's weblog Math class for poets, which includes a link to Legal Underground--

By the Way

Please remember that materials on this site are not offered as legal advice. Do not attempt to substitute any material or information on this site for the advice of competent counsel licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction.

To understand why that's important, check out What this site is not.

Opinions expressed on this website are my own and should not be imputed to employers, colleagues, or anyone else. Heck, opinions expressed on this website might not even be mine. Evan says stuff he doesn't mean every day, and everybody loves it. Maybe I can get away with that, too. But probably not.

Way to go, Tim! May your wisdom be recognized by legal webloggers across the land, such they copy your disclaimer word for word, links and all.

That means you, Professor Reynolds!

Tragedy Strikes Blawging World: Fifty of the Best Perish

CHICAGO—In what’s being called one of the most gruesome law-blogging accidents in history, fifty blawgers died after their brains simultaneously burst during the final hours of the LexThink legal conference in trendy west-Loop Chicago.

“Apparently, there was just too much thinking going on,” said the owner of the posh Catalyst Ranch, where the LexThink conference was being conducted in multiple living-room style conversation rooms. “As we’ve pieced it together, the entire group had gathered together to try to come up with a list of adjectives to describe their LexThink experience. It was then that something went horribly wrong.”

A cellphone with video capability, highly popular among the trend-setting legal webloggers, was running in the room and captured the scene.

As the fifty blawgers stood around a bright red and very comfortable-looking sofa, they waited until Dennis Kennedy said "Go" and then began shouting adjectives all at once, struggling to describe their LexThink experience in a way that would be more clever and more creative than everyone else.

“Really good!" someone shouted, which immediately transformed the room into something resembling the floor of a commodities exchange: "Really great! Superb! Exemplary! Cool! Life-changing! Life-altering! Super cool! Super innovative! Really really cool! Super-duper innovative!”

At this point, a replay of the video recorder reveals a bright flash, followed shortly by darkness as the cellphone quit recording.

“The flash was when their heads exploded,” said the Catalyst Ranch owner, wiping tears from his eyes. “It happened simultaneously as a result of their passion and enthusiasm for what they were doing. To understand it, you have to understand something else: these were some very, very heavy-duty legal thinkers. Every one of them had a weblog.”

Asked to name some of those who were killed, the owner of Catalyst Ranch began to count one-by-one on his fingers. “There was Sherry and Dennis and Matt and Fred and Jeremy and Rob and Ernie and Al and Buzz and Matt and Ben and Enrico and Arnie. Plus 37 others."

Tragically, the fifty dead comprised the most enthusiastic core of the small group of legal weblog writers. Ironically, the dead also comprised the most enthusiastic core of legal weblog readers. At this time, it’s not clear what will happen to the nascent blawging movement after the catastrophe that's already being called BlawgDisconnect2005.

At least one blawger who was not in attendance at LexThink thinks that the tragedy might work to his benefit.

Evan Schaeffer is a slump-shouldered, brooding loner, the author of ten separate legal weblogs. Said to have been deeply despondent after LexThink was scheduled on a date that made it impossible for him to attend, Schaeffer has changed his tune.

“I dodged a bullet,” he said yesterday. “As a result, I have only half the competition I used to. You want to know how I really feel about the 'tragedy'? It kicks ass!”

It’s rare for a blawger to admit to competitive urges, but Schaeffer also seemed bitter. “They said the goal of LexThink was to come up with the 'perfect professional services firm.' Hah. Everyone knows that's impossible. Actually, they were planning to take over the world.”

Tossing some hair out of his eyes, Schaeffer threw down his cigarette and kick-started his Harley-Davidson. “Either that, or they were in Chicago mixing methamphetamine. That’s possible too. Have you ever seen Matt Homann talk about blawging? 'Way too excited' would be a hell of an understatement.”

The Anonymous Lawyer Between Covers

When I last wrote about The Anonymous Lawyer, it was on December 26, 2004, when New York Times reporter Sara Rimer pulled back the curtain of anonymity to reveal the law student who stood behind it: as we all know now, it was Jeremy Blachman, who told Rimer that he hoped to turn his weblog into a book.

Today Harvard Law School is reporting that Jeremy has already negotiated a book deal with Henry Holt and Co.--

In the days following the Times article, he heard from two dozen book agents, all itching to capitalize on the buzz. In February, he settled on a deal with publisher Henry Holt and Co. to write the book version of Anonymous Lawyer. When interviewed for this story, he politely declined to say what the deal is worth.

“It will be like a ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’--letters to the reader in blog form about this guy’s life at the firm,” said Blachman. Although the existing blog will serve as the source material, he says the book will have new stories and a plot.

I say to Jeremy: Congratulations, and I'm looking forward to the book. (And thanks to Mike Cernovich for notifying me about Jeremy's news.)

Let's Hope It's the Last in a Failed Series

Car-accident-blogging, from Professor Althouse.

It's just the knee-jerk reaction of a lawyer, but I found myself cringing to learn that Professor Althouse had admitted fault at the scene and was now doing it on her weblog. 

On the other hand, the facts are the facts. I'm glad she's okay.

A glimpse into Professor Althouse's future:

Request for Production #43: All "weblog" entries, "blog" entries, weblog "posts," and "blogger" text, and drafts of all "weblog" entries, "blog" entries, weblog "posts," and "blogger" text, relating, referring, or describing said collision.

Are Solos Really That Boring?

A weblog that never quite took off: Anonymous Solo Attorney.

UPDATE: The weblog's tagline is "the story of a solo attorney making it day by day." As it turns out, "day by day" is a hugely popular song title. In the comments, I explore possible theme music for the anonymous solo attorney, if his weblog ever gets off the ground.

Hugh Hewitt on the Legal Blogosphere: Are His Views Myopic?

Last night I read Blog, the new book by Hugh Hewitt. Hugh's a conservative radio talk-show host with a huge blog following at HughHewitt.com. According to Hugh, the growing popularity of weblogs has been a sort of conservative uprising: "MSM ('mainstream media') went left. Into that void have come first Rush, then talk radio, then FOX News, and now the bloggers." He continues, "[F]rom that initial entry point of news and politics, they will move on other fields, from restaurant reviews to theater to books to car purchases."

Blogs as a conservative uprising? For all I know, that might be right. But as for the rest of it, weblogs have already moved into those other areas Hugh mentions. Hugh's contrary view is based on his decision to pay very little attention to weblogs without huge traffic numbers. I'll demonstrate how that decision skews his analysis in a moment. As for the book as a whole, it's very interesting--it contains some insight into weblogs that I hadn't heard before, and it gave me some new ideas. It's just too bad that Hugh's insights were accompanied by so much conservative chest-thumping, because it will probably limit the audience for the book.

Anyway, the real point of this post is to bring you Hugh's view of legal weblogs, which demonstrates that there's one corner of the blogosphere that he's not very familiar with.

Hats Off to Matt Homann

Congratulations to Matt Homann for these accolades. It makes me think that perhaps Dennis Kennedy was on to something when he endorsed Matt as a write-in candidate for the Legal Affairs World's Biggest Legal Brain Competition.

Matt and I both practice in Madison County, Illinois, where President Bush is coming tomorrow to denigrate our county's lawyers. If you happen to hear about it, keep Matt's example in mind.

Finally, in related news, Matt, Dennis, and Scheherazade Fowler are hosting a conference in April called LexThink! Chicago that you can read about on their various sites here, here, and here. Very exciting, in my opinion.

A Polite, Though Extraordinarily Serious, Dissent from the Becker-Posner Definition of the Term "Weblog"

A few months ago, an esteemed member of the federal judiciary and noted author, Richard Posner, undertook a new project to explore issues relating to society, politics, and economics. The venture was not undertaken alone, but with a co-scholar, the Nobel-prize-winning laureate Gary Becker. Together, Posner and Becker began pooling, publishing, and distributing their ideas in a dialogic format about once every seven days, primarily on Mondays. This exciting new intellectual venture was not accomplished by traditional, ordinary, or typical publishing routes, but by a unique form of “Internet” publishing called a “weblog.” The Becker-Posner Blog is one of the early examples of this original, timely, and innovatory publishing technique. Many have already pointed out, in fact, that The Becker-Posner Blog is one of the most strikingly notable examples of the nascent weblog format.

In an introductory explanation of The Becker-Posner Blog weblog, the term “weblog” was ably, though perhaps not aptly, defined by Posner. In the ensuing days, Posner’s definition of the term “weblog,” which I shall call the “Posner Definition,” was electronically affirmed, disseminated, and distributed all over the world as various “webloggers” republished the Posner Definition on their “blogs.”

Together, it is said, these webloggers make up the “blogosphere." The term “blogosphere,” which is yet another term unqualifiedly in need of a definition by a professional thinker, exemplifies the way that the community of webloggers, even if nondescript, unimpressive, and intellectually-challenged when considered individually, can effectively assemble, cast, and recast information in a way that mimics a giant machine or market, even creating new words where no others would suitably do. Thus the term "blogosphere." First and foremost, the blogosphere should be understood, then, as the worldwide network of weblogs that has responded, seemingly in tandem and overnight, to the first postings of The Becker-Posner Blog.

A New Way of Dealing With Comment Spam

Comment Spam n. 1. A fake weblog comment containing an embedded link to a website featuring a worthless product or service. 2. A royal pain in the ass for weblog authors. 3. What Satan coughs up when he pukes.

I tried organizing against the comment spammers. I tried shaming them. I tried ignoring them. But the other day, for the first time, I tried an entirely new approach: I deleted the comment spam but invited the comment spammer, via e-mail, to send me the product he was hawking for free. I told him I might like it, which might lead me to post about it. And wouldn't this be better, in the end, than simply leaving a link?

I was a little surprised that it worked. But yesterday, the product arrived in the mail with a nice note. Is it because the marketing-savvy are catching on to the value of weblogs, as I read in Fortune magazine? Or is it because the comment spammer I'd caught was a rank amateur who didn't know any better? After all, he had a web address in the U.S. and left an e-mail address that worked.

Perhaps it was a fluke, but I'm going to try it again. As for the product that arrived in the mail, I won't tie it to the stigma of comment spam by identifying it here. I can tell you, however, that it didn't fall into the class of one of the fourteen other products or services that have mucked up this weblog in the past few months, as follows: auto insurance, Vioxx representation, pay-to-surf programs, debt consolidation, online dating, online gambling, credit checks, asbestos representation, rape stories, cheap blinds, propolene diet pills, discount cigarettes, dental plans, and phentermine.

Internet puke, indeed.

Who's More Funny: Jay Leno or David Letterman? A Post About Two Webloggers Who Criticize Anonymous Lawyer

Is a person's reaction to humor subjective? I think so. Personally, I prefer David Letterman to Jay Leno. Early Evelyn Waugh cracks me up, but I can do without Christopher Buckley. I love The Daily Show, but I thought America was lame. Am I right or wrong?

This rhetorical question is a partial response to two interesting posts from Soupie and Larry: "Johnson, J. Dissenting" and "pistol packin' mama." Both take the position that they don't think Anonymous Lawyer is funny. They have other objections, as well. Soupie says, in part, that Anonymous Lawyer makes "lawyers look even shittier than they do already by drawing attention to the very worst aspects of the profession." And Larry says, in part, that "to publish AL as his tone is now (smug and self-congratulatory) is to legitimate poor partner treatment.  Or, in other words, it sets forth as appropriate acting like a prick and treating others poorly.  I don't believe that kind of treatment is okay, even if the stakes are enormous and pressure to do well is high."